Re: Looking for some feedback
Originally Posted by
davef
Attached are 4 views of the domestic satin espresso Sierra-2. Domestic meaning these are the cabinets made here in the US that aren't yet listed on our website.
With our forthcoming new website, we plan on using these same 4 views for every speaker.
I think they look great but we are looking for some feedback, comments etc before we commit to these views...
This is a toughie. Showing people what they need to see without going overboard isn't easy. And I'm sure that you'll get a huge variation in feedback. I'm not sure how much will be useful to you either. That said...
The people buying probably aren't buying on looks, at least not as a primary factor. I know I didn't -- I bought what was in stock and on sale, which turned out to be piano black. Not my favorite, but I'm not looking at it, I'm listening to it.
My wife OTOH, is very much interested in what it looks like, in particular what it looks like in her den. And what she sees when she's walking around the den is a speaker that's more or less at waist height -- so she sees a lot of the top. This is something your pictures go through some effort to avoid. Why? This is a question you really should have an answer to. Because often the spouses have veto power over a purchase such as this. So you should be thinking about selling to the spouses as well as selling to the buyer. You know this, yes?
I'm just sayin' that you have to look at this thing from different perspectives. You as the designer/manufacturer are proud of certain aspects and want to show those off. But you should restrain this instinct, because that's not what your website is trying to accomplish. What your website is trying to accomplish is sales. And there's usually two parts of these sales -- the person buying, and the spouse who may have veto power over the purchase. The buyer is probably more interested in the technical, and the spouse is probably more interested in the aesthetic. Not always, but more often than not.
So... prioritize. I'd put making the "main" pictures (the ones you first see on the Sierra 2 webpage for example) toward selling the buyer. Then I'd want the "beauty" shots a click away (so as not to clutter the Sierra 2 webpage) as a tool for the buyer to sell to the spouse. I'd save the "technical" shots for webpages farther removed where you give the technical details about construction and components -- where you can show off the stuff you, the designer/manufacturer, is really proud of.
I don't know if I'm being clear; I'm not the most articulate guy in writing.
Back to the four pix you show. I'd loose the second one. You want a perspective with a known stable horizon line -- so called "dutch angles" like this are used mainly to instill in the viewer a sense of unease and "wrongness". This is why you see them used in, say, horror movies, when the person is reaching out her hand (and it's almost always a her I'm sorry to say) toward that door knob to the door the audience knows she should not be opening. I'm just saying, no dutch angles.
Then, I'd raise the camera up relative to the speakers and show a view that includes some of the top. Because this is how people will see them in real life.
Other than that, I don't know what to advise.
"If it sounds good, it is good." -- Duke Ellington